Stationary Bike (audiobook) by Stephen King

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2006
Read by Ron McClarty
Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes

I am not sure who the person was at Simon and Schuster Audio that decided to record Stephen King's short stories, like Stationary Bike as separately packaged stories, but I think it was a stroke of brilliance. I am leery of listening to a 30-40 hour audiobook for a taste of King's special brand of story-telling and I am equally leery of a short story collection - I get tired of mentally shifting gears so often.

In this short story, Richard Sifkitz is an overweight graphic artist (he specializes in book covers and advertisements) who was told by his doctor that he needs to lose a little weight and eat better because his cholesterol is too high. The doctor compares his cardiovascular system to a road maintenance crew and says that Sifkitz is working his crew to death and soon enough it will start to fail.

Sifkitz resolves to work out and buys a stationary bike. He paints a simple painting of a landscape on the wall as well. Soon enough, he begins to fall into some sort of trance as he rides and it seems like he is actually riding into the landscape he has painted - and what he finds there is a definite surprise! Note that this is not a "horror story" so much as it is a story with a twist, much like The Twilight Zone.

Stationary Bike was read by veteran reader Ron McClarty who covered all of the characters well and helped to make this an enjoyable audiobook experience, despite its short length. His conversational reading style reinforced the idea that Sifkitz is just a regular guy with an extraordinary story.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Stationary Bike

Reviewed on April 12, 2013.

Civil War (Marvel Comics) (audiobook) by Stuart Moore

Adapted from the graphic novel series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven

Published by GraphicAudio in 2013

Multicast performance

Duration: Approximately 6 hours.

NOTE: This review was written before the Marvel Studios movie of the same name was released. Clearly, this comic series inspired the movie. For me, this novelization is superior to the movie.

I am a huge fan of the work that GraphicAudio has done over the years with its adaptations of DC Comics graphic novels. They promise “A movie in your mind” and they have never failed to produce high quality audio dramas that sound like old-fashioned radio plays with better sound effects, special music and usually more than twenty actors plus a narrator. The fight scenes are amazing, the sound effects are always top notch.

Two or three years ago, I was asked on a message board if GraphicAudio ever performed anything by Marvel Comics. I confidently said that they did not and probably never would because DC and Marvel are like Pepsi and Coke – forever in conflict. I assumed Marvel would eventually decide to go with another publisher and that was that. Boy, am I glad that I was wrong. Marvel and GraphicAudio working together means that there will be twice the opportunities to let GraphicAudio do what they best with the very best superhero stories, especially if their first one, Civil War, is any indication of what is to come.

Marvel’s Civil War is a “reboot” of the Marvel universe. It is not a fundamental change like the Star Trek re-boot that came with the last movie. Spider-man is still Spider-man and Iron Man still flies around and tries to control everything through Stark Industries. But, some minor characters were literally killed. Groups like S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers are forever changed as well.

Since I am not a fanboy (once again, said with affection) in my mind I placed this audiobook a year or two after the events in the movie The Avengers just to make the story work for me. There have been some developments, though. The Hulk has disappeared. Nick Fury and Thor are dead and no one knows for sure how or where they died. Spiderman has just been convinced by Tony Stark to join the Avengers. Spiderman is also getting an Iron Man type suit that works with his abilities free and clear from Tony Stark.

This audiobook is a dramatization of the 2012 novelization of the rather extensive comic book series that made up the Marvel Comics Civil War. There are some substantial differences between the two story lines.

The story begins with a group of young superheroes called the New Warriors tracking down a group of supervillains in Stamford, Connecticut. They attempt to apprehend the villains and during the fight one of the villains causes himself to explode rather than be captured (the bad guys appear to have been using illegal drugs just before the fight so this is a serious case of impaired judgment). The explosion is massive and kills more than 700 people and causes a massive public outcry against untrained, irresponsible masked vigilantes who cause more damage than the outlaws they apprehend.

Within days the federal government has responded with sweeping legislation (negotiated with the help of Tony Stark) that requires all “meta-humans” be registered, unmasked, trained and licensed by the federal government and become federal employees and serve in a federally regulated superhero team working through S.H.I.E.L.D. Each team will be assigned to a state. Meta-humans who fail to comply will be hunted down, arrested and incarcerated in a special prison without any sort of trial. They will be released only if they decided to comply.

This is not a new idea in superhero stories. D.C. Comic’s The Dark Knight deals with a government that has had enough of superhero vigilantes as does Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles but Civil War creates its own distinct look at this concept.

Spider-man comes out of the shadows and becomes the symbol of this new movement when he unmasks himself during a Tony Stark press conference. Soon, his life is a disaster as old enemies and the press harass him at home and he loses his job once his newspaper figures out he was faking his Spiderman stories and pictures for all of those years.

Captain America decides that this new policy reminds him of the World War II era Japanese internment camps and there are some similarities. Imprisonment based on who you are, not what you have done. Young Japanese men could not leave the camps unless they agreed to fight for America in the army in Europe. Imprisoned superheroes cannot leave prison unless they agree to serve the federal government as meta-human police. Captain America becomes the leader of those that refuse to register, Tony Stark/Iron Man is the leader of the group that complies and a war of words quickly becomes a super-sized fight and not everyone survives.

Spider-man serves as the symbolic fulcrum of the argument, swinging back and forth between the two until he finally makes a decision.

One of the best things about science fiction is its ability to take a current event topic and turn it on its head and still be able to continue the discussion. In this case, this book discusses a number of issues, including:

-Group safety vs. individual freedom and another person’s rights;

-Negotiating away your rights in exchange for safety;

-Cloning;

-The coerced use of behavior-modification techniques;

-How far can corporate information gathering go?;

-Combined corporate/government power vs. the rights of the individual;

-Do you support America because it is your home or because it protects your rights?

The conflict between Tony Stark and Captain America continues until it gets to the requisite climactic fight scene (this is a superhero story, after all). Personally, I loved this story until the clunky ending where one side cedes to the other. It was all rather anti-climactic compared to the build-up and it just did not work very well when compared to the rhetoric and drama that filled the rest of the story.

If Marvel was looking to re-boot their universe this book does that in a way that seems rather natural. No time traveling enemies destroying worlds or killing a superhero’s parents. In this case, the politics of being a superhero gets in the way and changes everything.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Civil War (audiobook)

Note: I was sent this audiobook by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Yes, I truly did like this audiobook. I liked it a lot.

The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America by Scott Weidensaul

Published in 2012 by Houghton Miffllin Harcourt Publishing Company

I have had Scott Weidensaul's The First Frontier for longer than a year, buried in my legendary pile of books (actually, I am more organized than that, they are all in 4 milk crates) but when I heard an interview with Weidensaul on the John Batchelor radio show I was reminded to dig it out.

Weidensaul is to be commended for a very thorough job of researching the history of the relationship between the natives and the European colonists. The records are scant, the spelling is haphazard and so much of it is buried in myth and politics.

He starts with the disposition of the American Indian population prior to the arrival of Europeans. The limited history of pre-Colombian contact is discussed (with the Vikings and various fishing fleets) and the discussion of the similarities of differences of the various American Indians arrayed along the Atlantic coastline is quite interesting.

But, as Weidensaul's narrative continues and the colonies become established the book becomes quite repetitive and I found that I had to force myself to plow through what seemed to be an endless list of atrocities from both sides up and down the coast from Maine to Connecticut. There would be a misunderstanding, one side would strike back with violence, the other would escalate and then the European colonists would obliterate a native village, burn their corn and then there would be quotes with atrocious spelling and then it would start again in a new village.

Hannah Duston/Dustin statue in
Haverhill, Massachusetts 

Now, please understand what I am saying. First, what am I not saying? I am not saying that these struggles were unimportant or that these deaths were not tragic. I am not saying that this history is unimportant or that these people do not count. I am saying that the way this was presented made the whole thing a blur of violence and misunderstanding with precious little analysis. Rather than tell every sad story (with its related  quotes and back stories) up and down the New England coast for nearly one hundred dreary pages these could have been summarized with the highlights being told.

The exception in those stories was the extraordinary and gruesome tale of Hannah Duston/Dustin and her retribution against the group that kidnapped her and killed her baby - she killed and scalped them all so that she could turn in the scalps for the reward. Weidensaul's discussion of Duston/Dustin and what she has meant and what she means now is quite good.

The section on the Carolinas was better as it was told as more of a cohesive narrative but the section that ended the book with the beginnings of the occupation of western Pennsylvania was too long for a re-hash of the trends that had been happening since the early 1600s. I think the focus of the book was too much on catching all of the individual events and less on catching the trends and making the story something that was more friendly to the reader. This reader, who loves history, teaches history and talks about history all of the time found this book to be a well-researched but not very well-written. It was something that I had to slog through, which is too bad.

I received this book from the publisher at no charge through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon here: The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, and Endurance in Early America.

However, I do recommend this book instead: Struggle for a Continent: The Wars of Early America. 

Reviewed on April 4, 2013.

My Mother's Secret by J.L. Witterick

Published in 2013 by iUniverse

J.L. Witterick's My Mother's Secret is the true tale of Franciszka Halamajowa and her daughter Helena who are  native Poles trying to survive the German occupation of their country. They speak German since Franciszka was married to a German (the father of Helena) but she left him to return to Poland before the war. Helena works in a German factory and is dating the manager, the son of the owner. She and her mother are somehow scraping by even though the war is a daily reality for them and German soldiers have been known to park their vehicles right next to their house and officers have even come over for dinner. Oh, and they are also hiding two Jewish families and a German soldier who refuses to fight, keeping them all fed and unaware of each other.

German soldiers in a Polish village
in 1942 or 1943

Witterick tells this story in a spare writing style that emphasizes the matter-of-fact way that these two ladies took in families that needed help with little discussion. People came to them needing help and they helped them. That's it. 

It is sad that this is remarkable in this world, but it is.

This story reminded me of the famed Levi Coffin who helped between 2,000 and 3,000 slaves escape along the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. I have visited his home in Newport, Indiana and he was always worrying about how to hide the extra food and water that extra mouths consume. I cannot imagine how hard it was to hide this extra consumption (not to mention dealing with the bodily waste) on a daily basis. Levi Coffin said when he was asked why he did what he did: "I thought it was always safe to do right." I am sure these ladies never heard of Levi Coffin or of the Underground Railroad, but they were of that same admirable mindset.

I would recommend this book for grades 5 and above. The reading level is not too high and the horrors of the Holocaust are not listed in gruesome detail so as to bother younger readers.

See the author's website by clicking here.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

4I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. 

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: My Mother's Secret: A Novel Based on a True Holocaust Story

Reviewed on April 3, 2013.

Streets of Fire (audiobook) by Thomas H. Cook

"That's the trouble with a situation like this - you just don't know who is who."

Published by Highbridge Audio in 2012
Read by Ray Chase
Duration: 11 hours, 35 minutes.

Unabridged.

Thomas H. Cook's Streets of Fire is set in Birmingham, Alabama in the spring of 1963 during Martin Luther King's famed "Birmingham Campaign" that featured the Children's March, "Bull" Connor, boycotts and fire hoses being turned on demonstrators.

Sergeant Ben Wellman is called away from taking detailed notes on Martin Luther King's speeches at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church (one of many policemen that were used as spies who filled notebooks and turned them in to their superiors) to investigate a dead body found in a shallow grave in an abandoned ball field in Bearmatch, a black neighborhood. Generally, the all white Birmingham police department didn't do much investigating into murders in this working class Black neighborhood - they are logged and if it is not solved with minimal investigation, it is left to the people of Bearmatch to mete out justice if they can.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. 
Photo courtesy of Library of Congress, 
Prints and Photographs Division, AL-898-5

But, Wellman is touched by this case. A 12 year old girl in a simple dress was raped and killed and buried in the middle of a neighborhood and no one noticed because so many people were involved in the protests. Wellman digs into this case and also into the racial divisions of Birmingham. As he investigates he also discovers deep fissures in white and black society - neither are monolithic and the protests are causing both societies to split apart.

The Birmingham police department is also splitting under the pressure. Some cops are true racists, some are just following orders and some are quietly on the side of the protesters and wondering and how they should proceed. As the book proceeds, Wellman moves from being a simple order follower to being solidly on the side of the protesters.

This is a great police procedural. Sometimes it is a buddy book, sometimes it is one man against the system, sometimes it is just a look at the tragedy that racial hate has wrought on American society. The back story of the protests adds a great deal of depth and urgency to the story. Be prepared, the history is not one hundred percent correct, but I suggest that the changes are minimal enough to make the story to work (changed for dramatic effect as they say in the movies).

The only complaint I have is the large number of characters. Ray Chase, the reader, does a tremendous job of creating separate voices for all of them.. His reading is actually quite remarkable and I heartily recommend the audio version. However, there are so many characters that are so integral to the story that they just sort of flow into one another one after a while, especially when it comes to the police detectives. It makes sense that there would be so many police in the department, but to make so many of them characters makes it a bit complicated.

A bit complicated but very much worth it.

This audiobook was provided to me at no charge by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Streets of Fire can be found on Amazon.com here.

Reviewed on April 3, 2013.

Riders of Judgment (Danny Duggin #3) by Ralph Compton

Unique twist on the traditional Western but fails to deliver

Originally published in 2001.

Riders of Judgment is the third in the "Danny Duggin" series. The first two book are Death Rides a Chestnut Mare and the second is The Shadow of a Noose. The trilogy is about Danielle Duggin, the crack shot daughter of a master gunsmith who was gunned down by a ruthless gang led by Saul Delmano, the rich and spoiled son of a man who has led his own gang for decades.

Danielle transforms into "Danny" and starts to hunt down the 10 men in the gang that killed her father. She has a list of names and is slowly working her way through it, marking them off as she kills them. She is joined by her twin brothers in her second book. In the third book they are down to one last name: Saul Delmano.

Saul Delmano is hiding in Mexico, protected by the government of Mexico because Delmano's father rules the valley he lives in and polices it and shares some of the spoils with corrupt officials. Delmano's father has put a $2,000 bounty on Danny Duggins head and every crooked bounty hunter and gang leader between Duggin and Mexico is looking to collect.

While I do give Compton credit for a unique twist on the traditional western, I found this book to be rather scattered with lots of random plot changes and new characters  that did little to move the story along and just padded the book. The romance that blossoms is very forced but the look at what this long crusade to avenge her father has done to "Danny" was interesting but, sadly, under-explored.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Riders of Judgment

Reviewed on April 1, 2013.

The Second Rule of Ten (Tenzing Norbu #2) by Gay Hendricks and Tinker Lindsay

Too Much Plot for Just One Book

Published in 2013 by Hay House Visions

So, The Second Rule of Ten, the second book in the Tenzing Norbu series, is jam-packed - so jam-packed that it really should have been two books.

Tenzing "Ten" Norbu is a welcome addition to the L.A. mystery genre. He is an ex-Tibetan monk and an ex-LAPD officer turned private investigator who is struggling to figure out his place in the world, looking for the right woman and dealing with a poor relationship with his father.

In this mystery, Ten is trying to solve the murder of an ex-client, a Hollywood producer with a reputation for making enemies. Along the way, he discovers a much larger plot involving a Latin gang, illegal drugs and a survivor of the Holocaust.

I really like the character Ten - he is an active practitioner of meditation but in no way does he have all of his problems solved by meditation - he still gets irritated in traffic jams, can't figure out how to deal with the new lady in his life and he carries a gun (once he gets his permit, that is) and is a genuinely nice guy.

But, no matter how much I like Ten, this book slowly morphs into an overly-complicated mess with an extraneous investigation into the missing sister of a Holocaust survivor and a trip to India for Ten to deal with family issues back at his father's monastery (this was interesting but very forced attached to the end of the book, including a side trip into Chinese-occupied Tibet. This would have been a fantastic stand-alone plot in another book - a book that really looked at what's going on in Tibet under Chinese rule).

One other issue, more of a pet peeve than anything else: shotguns and rifles are not the same thing. In a struggle on page 306 I was confused about how many weapons were in the room when the authors used the terms interchangeably.

See my review for The First Rule of Ten by clicking here.

I was offered this book from the publisher through the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Second Rule of Ten.

Reviewed on March 30, 2013.

Quest, Inc. by Justin Cohen

Published by Telemachus Press, LLC (March 19, 2012)

Quest, Inc. features an all-star cast of self-improvement experts who have joined together to offer the complete  package for those seeking self-improvement. There is an expert on fitness, a psychotherapist with a focus on relationships, a financial expert, a therapist who deals with addictions and a body language and image consultant.

The book starts out with Robert Rivera, the fitness expert, He has become fat and completely unmotivated. He has lost his home and his wife and fails at an attempt to kill himself. The other four experts know him from a presidential commission that they all served on and they re-unite to save Rivera and their own reputations (his failure throws doubt on all of their advice).

Once Rivera has his life back on track (roughly the first half of the book), the five of them start Quest, Inc. and promote themselves as the Worlds #1 Personal Development Agency. The rest of the book features a reporter for the Huffington Post who is determined to torpedo their venture because she despises the self-help "industry" and a series of clients. 

I had no problem with the book per se, but it just did not have a real ending. Instead, this felt like the novelization of the first two episodes of a television show, a show like ER that deals with self-help clients rather than medical issues. The first episode (the first half of the book) introduces all of the specialists and demonstrates that they are vulnerable people just like their clients. The second episode (the second half of the book) starts us on our "clients of the week." The reader gets to hear about interesting problems and how they might be helped while the main characters' individual plot lines continue moving forward at a glacial pace. The book screams to be the first in a series.

I found the book to be a little slow-moving. The clients were interesting but were so numerous that they were really just a device to introduce interesting ideas and cause the main characters to interact. I quickly lost interest in all of the experts (and their hang-ups) except for Robert Rivera. He was the only one that was developed in any way but as the story progressed he became less and a part of the story.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Quest, Inc. by Justin Cohen.

Reviewed on March 25, 2013.

Iscariot: A Novel of Judas (audiobook) by Tosca Lee

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio 
Published February 5, 2013
Read by Jason Culp
Duration: 9 hours, 11 minutes

As the title says, Iscariot: A Novel of Judas tells the the story of one of the most infamous people in history - Judas, the disciple that betrayed Jesus.

Tosca Lee tells the story in a very sympathetic manner. At no point in the story is Judas an evil man. In fact, he is the opposite - he is an exceptionally good man who lives an upright life, tries his very best and truly loves Jesus, the man he calls "teacher."

A close up of Judas Iscariot (front) in
Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper"

Tosca Lee creates a sympathetic back story for Judas involving a life full of loss, pain and a tragic multi-generational search for the messiah. Judas has decided that searching for a messiah is the surest way to get hurt. Instead, he has joined a secret society that is working to push the Romans out of Judea. But, things radically change when Judas meets John the Baptist and then goes on to meet Jesus.

Interestingly, throughout the story, as Judas hears what Jesus teaches he rarely gets the real meaning. He argues with Jewish officials that Jesus speaks in metaphors all of the time so his stories cannot be taken literally but Judas mainly misses the point time after time. Judas is looking for a military leader and does not truly hear what Jesus says about his true purpose and when his kingdom will commence.

Tosca Lee's writing style is often clunky with old-fashioned phrases. It can be be very tedious but it does blend easily with quotes from the Bible when they are worked in (she tends to use quotes that are similar to  the more formal style of the NIV translation rather than some of the more informal newer translations). For all of that clunkiness, there are some moments of literary magic here. The scene where Jesus heals the leper comes to mind as does most of the story of Jesus's trial.

Jason Culp brought this book to life. The multitude of voices he created just work to create a different world.  Even better, Culp really acts out the anguish and the passion that prevail throughout the end of the story.

I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review as part of the Audiobook Jukebox Solid Gold Reviewer program.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Iscariot: A Novel of Judas

Reviewed on March 22, 2013.

Bear Is Broken (Leo Maxwell #1) (audiobook) by Lachlan Smith

Published February 5, 2013 by HighBridge Audio
Read by R.C. Bray
Duration: 8 hours, 10 minutes

Lachlan Smith's debut novel is set in 1999 San Francisco. Leo Maxwell is a newly minted lawyer (less than a week) who was been helping around his brother's law office for the last few months. Teddy  Maxwell is one of the most controversial and most successful defense attorneys in San Francisco. His specialty is not high profile clients, but hookers, drug dealers and the like. He is thoroughly hated by the police department, the prosecutor's office and any number of people who were unhappy about cases that he won.

This matters because Teddy is shot in the head in the middle of a restaurant by an unknown assailant right over Leo's shoulder and the list of possible suspects is enormous. The police think that one of Teddy's clients did it, or maybe an unhappy victim of one of his clients. Teddy's friends and clients think that the police did it.  All Leo knows is that he has to figure it out and somehow muster the courage to finish Teddy's closing argument in what may very well have been his last case.

Up to this point, Bear is Broken is an amazing first novel. It is tight, interesting, has the reader rooting for Leo to successfully finish the argument for his brother and somehow figure out who shot Teddy. The argument scene is amazing and then this tight legal thriller scatters everywhere.

Leo accuses everyone of shooting his brother. These are not just mere musings or suppositions to Teddy's former wife. No - these are confrontations, screaming matches, announcements to the world. He accuses the police, his brother's investigator, one former client, then another and then accuses them of working together and then changes his mind and then decides that he was right and starts all over again. Throw in a large subplot involving the murder of Leo and Teddy's mother years ago, their father serving time in jail for that murder and another one involving a drug dealer and a missing cash retainer (and a shady secretary) that was pre-paid to Teddy Maxwell and two more subplots involving a former client who was caught disposing of a body and that client's connection to even more stuff in Leo and Teddy's past and a look at San Francisco's prostitution scene and a rich girl that enjoys sexual games and is good with a gun and you can see that there are just way too many moving parts here. I honestly do not know how Leo solves the mystery in the end or if he actually did. All I know is that the person he finally settles on in the end is a bad person and needed to be punished for plenty of other stuff so why not for Teddy Maxwell's shooting?

The real positive to the audiobook was the reader. R.C. Bray's voice characterizations were excellent. I loved his characterization of Teddy Maxwell and the police officer in charge of the case. He covered a variety of different accents with real skill - everything from hookers to messed up druggies to elitist old rich ladies. He has a lot of talent. But, there is no way a fantastic performance by a reader could have made up for the confused jumble that is the end of this book.

My advice to Lachlan Smith would have been to have pared away at least half of these subplots and then saved them for other books.

But, what's done is done. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars. The first part was excellent - 5 stars. The last part was all over the place and left me confused (1 star) which makes a 3 star average.

Reviewed on March 15, 2013.

Note: This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review as part of Audiobook Jukebox's Solid Gold Reviewer program.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Bear Is Broken (Leo Maxwell)

In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero edited by Otto Penzler

Published  in 2012 by Smart Pop

I discovered Robert B. Parker's Spenser about 20 years ago. In a way, that is sad because I could have been enjoying Spenser for a lot more years. But, in a way it was fantastic because I had so many Spenser books to read to catch up and there were new ones coming out regularly. For years I was able to read or listen to his books as quickly as I wanted. But, eventually I caught up and had to just wait for the new ones. Sadly, in 2010 Parker died so all of his series came to an end.

In Pursuit of Spenser is an attempt to honor the long and noteworthy career of Robert B. Parker. Editor Otto Penzler has collected 14 essays by such writers as Lawrence Block, Loren D. Estleman and Dennis Lehane (and one work by Parker himself that explains Spenser) in a must-read for any fan. Although the focus is on Parker and Spenser, many of the other of the dozens of characters that  he created are covered as well. His role in re-invigorating the detective story, his take on male-female relationships, race relations and, of course, Spenser's wonderful wisecracks are thoroughly discussed.

Robert B. Parker 
(1932-2010)

I found it to be a wonderful celebration of a unique voice in American literature and a fitting tribute. I know the Spenser "franchise" is being continued by Ace Atkins, but I found myself agreeing with Lawrence Block who decided made the analogy between tribute bands and the real thing. I won't be moving forwards into the  "tribute band" portion of the Spenser franchise. I'll just re-visit the real thing from time to time.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero

Reviewed on March 14, 2013

The Intercept (Jeremy Fisk #1) (audiobook) by Dick Wolf

Published in 2013 by HarperCollins
Read by Peter Ganim
Duration: 11 hours, 11 minutes.

Unabridged.

Dick Wolf is best known as the producer and creator of the many different TV series in the Law and Order franchise. The Intercept is his first attempt at fictional book writing (he has considerable experience at screenplay writing).

So, how was this first attempt?

I liked it. I liked it a lot.

The story revolves around Jeremy Fisk, a detective with NYPD's counter-terrorism squad. New York City has an extensive counter-terrorism unit because New York City has been such a frequent target of terrorism. Fisk is fluent in Arabic and is frequently a contact person between NYPD and the FBI or CIA.

A terrorist tries to commandeer an airplane headed to America from Sweden by holding a stewardess hostage. Five passengers rise up to fight the terrorist and they succeed in saving the stewardess with only the one of the rescuers suffering the relatively minor injury of a broken forearm. When they land the media pounces on the story and the rescuers and the stewardess become nationally famous.

But, Fisk does not like the way things add up once he interviews the captured terrorist. Once he starts digging he finds that his worst fears may be coming true...

Peter Ganim read the book. He covered the wide variety of accents well, especially the Arabic accents. I was especially pleased with the milder New York accents that he provided. So many actors go with no accent or an over-the-top accent. Sure, some New Yorkers sound like the exaggerated stereotype of the New York accent, but how many more have a more subdued accent? I thought it added a nice touch of realism.

This audiobook has more multiple surprise twists and is pushed along at a quick pace. I found it thoroughly entertaining for the better part of a week's commute.

Note: This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Intercept: A Jeremy Fisk Novel (Jeremy Fisk Novel #1)

Reviewed on March 2, 2013.

The Phony Marine: A Novel by Jim Lehrer

Published in 2006 by Random House

Jim Lehrer, best known as the host of PBS's NewsHour is also an author of fiction (and a former Marine). In the briskly-paced short book The Phony Marine Lehrer introduces us to Hugo Marder, a clothing salesman at a high-end men's store. Hugo has lived an utterly unexceptional life and we join him as he is perusing eBay looking for cuff links to add to his collection. Yes, this is a man who collects cuff links - he is that boring.

The Silver Star

But, that night Hugo notes that someone is selling a Silver Star medal that was awarded to a Marine in Vietnam and he buys it. The Silver Star is only given for bravery in battle. This is no lightweight award and people who have not won it should not wear it. Hugo gets the Silver Star and on a lark he wears it one evening. He enjoys the attention he receives and begins to learn how to act and look more like a former Marine so that he can assume this identity.

Interestingly, along the way Hugo does change. He acts more assertive, he actually lives up to the heroic personae he has assumed - but, does that justify the fraud? Also, what happens if someone discovers what he is doing? Also, who is really what they portray themselves to be? Don't we all put up false fronts from time to time?

This book asks all of these questions and is a surprisingly enjoyable read.

I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Phony Marine: A Novel.

Reviewed on February 26, 2013.

The Plot Against America: A Novel by Philip Roth

Published in 2004 by Houghton Mifflin

In The Plot Against America, Philip Roth creates an alternate history centered around the presidential election of 1940. FDR doesn't run against Wendell Willkie. Instead, Charles Lindbergh enters the contest at the convention as an anti-war candidate and defeats Roosevelt.

In the real world, Lindbergh was  friendly towards the Nazi regime in Germany and made several public anti-Semitic comments so Roth's little twist to history is not out of line. Also, Lindbergh spoke at several "America First" anti-war rallies in 1940 and 1941. The first part of this book is the strongest. The alternate history moves briskly, the introduction to the Roth family and its main character, Philip (I can only assume that this is intended to be an alternate history autobiography) proceeds well.

Lindbergh speaking at an America First rally 

However, after the part of the book about the family trip to Washington, D.C. The Plot Against America just bogs down. The story moves forwards and backwards, sometimes weeks at a time and Roth seems more concerned about creating a sense of the atmosphere of pre-World War II Newark than he is about telling his story. Recently, I watched the movie To Kill A Mockingbird and it occurred to me that Roth was intentionally attempting to mimic the feel of movies like that, except in Newark, New Jersey. If that was intention, he succeeded, but he also succeeded in derailing his story with endless stories of secret bus trips and horses at orphanages. I am not quite sure what the point of all that was, but I know that I grew weary of it.

The end of the book is a mess. Roth tells the political ending long before he tells what happens to the Roth family and the little Jewish community of Newark. When he tells the ending so early, the drama is ruined, completely ruined. Also, the motivating factor given for Lindbergh's pro-German actions is so far-fetched, so ludicrous that I almost threw this book across the room.

So, I end up giving this book 3 stars. Great start, nicely realized (but oftentimes pointless) description of life in Newark, ridiculous ending.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Plot Against America.

Reviewed on February 26, 2013.

Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by P.J. O'Rourke

Originally published in 1991.
I read the 1992 Vintage Books paperback edition.

Dated but still has teeth.

P.J. O'Rourke goes after the ridiculousness that is the federal government with his trademark irreverent style in his 1991 book Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government.

Some of the commentary is dated (lots of talk about the forgettable 1988 presidential election with Republican George H.W. Bush going against Democrat Michael Dukakis. Also, the first one I voted in) but some of it is incredibly relevant. For example, the story of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) looking into the mystery of suddenly accelerating Audis 1n 1986 was reminiscent of the same problem with Toyotas that filled the news channels in 2009 and 2010.

Perhaps O'Rourke's most famous line comes from this book: "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." (pg. xvii in the preface) This sentiment is pretty typical of the book as a whole and one that I generally agree with. O'Rourke talks with former advisors to presidents, shadows a congressman, talks with lobbyists, bureaucrats, policeman, people who live in atrocious government "projects" built for the poor to live in, and more.

P.J. O'Rourke

O'Rourke notes on page 36: "It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money." And, O'Rourke proceeds to show the reader how and makes a solid case for a smaller, leaner government. He also explains how it got to be such a mess.

There are times when he fails to make his case. For me, the chapter on agriculture ("Agricultural Policy: How to Tell Your Ass From This Particular Hole in the Ground") was a nice lesson on overlapping government programs that seem absurd. For example, he bemoans the fact that there are so many government interventions that the marketplace is not really a factor in agricultural policy. That is true enough, but he negates his own argument on page 148 when he notes that "Cheap plentiful food is the precondition for human advancement. When there isn't enough food, everybody has to spend all of his time getting fed and nobody has a minute to invent law, architecture or big clubs to hit cave bears on the head with...we wouldn't grow food, we'd be food." O'Rourke seems to miss (or ignore) that the convoluted system of price supports, payments to keep fields idle and grants have the practical result of keeping plenty of extra food being produced and more than enough producers on hand. That way, if there is a massive drought (like the drought of 2012) there is plenty of food to make up for it. Because it is deals with food, the system is rigged to encourage over-production. Could it be more efficient? Sure. Could it be done smarter? Sure. But, O'Rourke fails to make his case that it should not be done at all.

O'Rourke's look into anti-poverty programs demonstrate that they were not working and that poverty is not easily solved and "You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money." (pg. 128, emphasis his) If nothing else, this chapters reveals that O'Rourke is not simply a know-it-all. He knows that he does not know how to "fix" poverty and that government is certainly no doing a good job of it, either.

This is an entertaining read, even if you don't agree with all of his conclusions. I started this book one day when I misplaced the book I had been reading. In just a couple of pages I knew had to finish this one first. Entertaining, often profane, never boring.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars and it can be found on Amazon.com here: Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government.

Reviewed on February 22, 2013.

The American Spirit: Celebrating the Virtues and Values that Make Us Great by Edwin J. Feulner and Brian Tracy

An introduction to Conservatism

Published in 2012 by Thomas Nelson

The American Spirit lists twenty "virtues and values" that serve to introduce the reader to the basics of Conservatism. These virtues and values include Patriotism, Responsibility, Optimism, Honesty, Faith, Tolerance and Open-Mindedness, Idealistic Realism, Problem Solving and Courage.

As I noted above, the book is an introduction to Conservatism. I am a Conservative and have been reading Conservative literature for a long time. The discussion is "bite-sized" rather than far-ranging and deep and is bound to be a little simplistic. For example, during the discussion on education there is praise for the idea of rating schools A-F but no discussion of the criteria that go into rating schools, or even if a central government (in this case a state government) should even be inserting itself into education and giving schools a letter grade. After all, education has long been a traditional function of local government bodies (such as your local school board) and Conservatism tends to favor local control to that of a centralized bureaucracy. Also, there is no discussion of the proper role of the federal government in education. Should the central government be making a single policy for everyone?

Sometimes the author get on a roll in their effusive praise of America that they go a step or two too far. On page 30 the authors assert that "With rare exceptions like the printing press, the greatest innovations, inventions and discoveries in human history have come since the founding of the United States and in the United States." (emphasis mine) Wow. I can name any number of items that are very important to the world that were not invented in America first, such as the automobile, the electric motor, rocket weapons, the radio and jet engines. Now, did America help perfect them or make them commonplace? Sure. But, why the need for exaggeration?

But, most of the book is solid, conservative thought with some great quotes thrown in. The discussion about the debt is relevant and well-done as was the section called The Law. If you are a regular reader of American Spectator or National Review this book will offer nothing new. If you are a newbie to Conservatism, it should prove interesting and thought-provoking.

This book was provided to me at no charge by the publisher in exchange for an honest review through the Amazon Vine program.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The American Spirit: Celebrating the Virtues and Values that Make Us Great.

Reviewed on February 20, 2013.